Emergency electrician in Kent: what to do when you have an electrical emergency

Electrical emergencies rarely announce themselves politely. A socket starts to smell, half the house goes dark, or the fuse box trips every time the kettle goes on. This guide covers what to do first, what not to touch and when to call an emergency electrician in Kent.

Make it safe before anything else

Your first job is not diagnosis, it is isolation. If you can reach your consumer unit safely, switch off the affected circuit. If you cannot identify the circuit, switch off the main switch. Do not stand in water, do not touch anything that is hot or scorched, and do not attempt to open an accessory or a board.

A burning smell or scorching

A sharp, plasticky burning smell around a socket, switch or consumer unit means heat is being generated where it should not be. This is one of the few genuine emergencies in domestic electrics because it is a fire risk.

• Switch the circuit off at the board immediately
• Unplug appliances on that circuit if it is safe to reach them
• Do not use the circuit again until it has been inspected
• Call an electrician the same day, not the following week

Electrics keep tripping

An RCD or breaker that trips repeatedly is doing its job. Something is wrong. The most common causes are a faulty appliance, water ingress, damaged cabling or an overloaded circuit. Unplug everything on the affected circuit, reset the breaker once, then reintroduce appliances one at a time. If it trips with nothing plugged in, the fault is in the fixed wiring and needs testing.

Total loss of power

Check whether your neighbours have power. If the street is out, it is a network fault and the free national emergency number 105 will connect you to your distributor. If it is only your property, check the main switch and the RCDs at your board. If the main fuse below the meter has failed, that belongs to the network operator, not to you, and must never be tampered with.

Sparking sockets and switches

A brief spark as a plug is withdrawn under load can be normal. Persistent sparking, buzzing, blackening or a socket that is warm to the touch is not. Stop using it, isolate the circuit and get it inspected. Loose terminals cause heat, and heat causes fires.

Water and electrics

Leaks from a bathroom, a roof or a burst pipe often show up first as tripping electrics. Isolate the affected circuits, do not use them until the installation has been dried and insulation resistance tested, and let us know about the leak so we know where to look.

What to have ready when you call

• Your address and access details
• What happened, and when it started
• Whether you have any power at all
• Whether anything has been switched off already
• A photo of the consumer unit if you can take one safely

Call an electrician you can actually reach

Bulldog Electrical covers Medway and the wider Kent area for urgent electrical faults, with 24/7 cover for contract clients. You speak to an electrician, not a call centre, and we tell you honestly whether it needs someone now or whether it can safely wait until morning.